Coup d’État foiled in Benin: prosecutors seek five years in prison against a journalist.

In Benin, as part of the trial related to the attempted coup d’état of December 7, 2025, the Special Public Prosecutor’s Office before the Court for the Repression of Economic and Terrorist Offenses (CRIET) has requested five years’ imprisonment for a journalist and a police officer charged with praising crimes against state security, incitement to hatred via the Internet, and incitement to rebellion.

The two defendants appeared before the judge on Tuesday, February 3, 2026. The journalist is accused of publishing on social media a text announcing the seizure of power by mutineers, interpreted by the public prosecutor as a form of support for the authors of the foiled coup.

The police officer is charged for comments deemed favorable to the attempt to overthrow the government.

The journalist denied having intended to encourage the coup, stating that he had shared information under pressure and for fear for his own safety. He would, according to his statements, have received threats two days earlier from an unknown person who approached him two days before the coup.

The individual told him that he regularly reads him and that he would be among those to be eliminated from the country. When he learned of the coup on national television, he recalled the threats, which is why, for his own safety and that of his family, he hurried to publish the coup information.

When asked by the presiding judge why he had not filed a complaint, the journalist said that threats to media professionals are recurring, and if he had to file a complaint every time, there would be no rest for the police.

He explained that he had relayed statements broadcast on national television on the day of the events, while affirming that he did not support the coup plotters’ actions.

The public prosecutor requested five years’ imprisonment for each, along with fines, emphasizing the gravity of offenses linked to state security. The verdict is expected at a hearing scheduled for March 24, 2026.

This trial is part of a series of proceedings against several people accused of praising the foiled coup, a judicial context particularly followed in Benin since the December events.